child, knitting, quilting, sweater, Three on Thursday

Three on Thursday: Projects I’ve been working on

One
The first thing I am working on is a So Faded sweater for my daughter that I actually started in October of 2017. When I picked it back up last month, I realized that the size I was knitting was now too small for her – but not before I knit several more inches on it to try it on her. It’s all been ripped out, the yarn reclaimed (using a similar process that I did for this sweater), and I’m near the bottom of the body and have started a sleeve. This time around I’ve made some mods (one should be obvious)… but I’ll share those when I get done and make sure they’ve worked out the way I wanted. 🙂

Two
My daughter asked for a twin-sized Toy Story quilt when she saw all the Toy Story fabrics that were available. I designed a quilt, bought fabric, decided I could do better on the design… and have redesigned it at least 3 times. I recently realized I made a math error on the design I’ve settled on… so we’ll see what happens with that!

Three
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to tackle a sportweight sweater for my daughter out of some organic cotton I bought at a fiber festival last year. I’ve been round and round thinking about what pattern I want to use, and whether I’m going to do a design on it, and if I do will it be colorwork or intarsia or stripes. I have still made no decisions on this, but have spent a lot of time on Ravelry looking at patterns and letting my mind chug through options.

What are you working on?

quilting, sewing

FO: Bright baby quilt

As I’ve mentioned before, I took a beginning quilting class earlier this year. I learned a few things, kept a few (possibly bad?) habits, and finished a quilt that I really love. 

Between signing up for the class and actually starting the class, I found out that a dear friend was expecting a baby. And all of a sudden, I knew exactly what the quilt would be for – her! I had browsed fabrics before and nothing was speaking to me, but when I went back with her and her baby in mind, fabric nearly jumped off the shelf at me. 

The first fabric that I really fell in love with was this gorgeous alphabet fabric. I loved the vibrant colors and cute illustrations that went along with each letter.

close-up of bright baby quilt

I picked out some coordinating fabrics, making sure I incorporated a variety of the colors that were in the alphabet fabric. I ended up choosing a white with some rain drops on it instead of going full neutral for my background color. I love that fabric, but I won’t lie, a few times during the making of the quilt I wondered if I should have gone with a plain white. But once it was all together, I knew it was the right choice. I wanted this to be a bright, happy quilt.

And so, every Tuesday, I spent two hours plugging away on the quilt and learning a few tips. By the end of the last class, I had done everything but the binding. I stalled for a bit there, undecided on what I wanted. Originally, I thought yellow, and then I thought that was too light. Then I wanted to find a solid purple that matched the purple in the quilt, but I couldn’t find the right shade. Finally, as I was driving in the car (because that and the shower are the only places genius strikes), I thought GREEN. It should have been so obvious. Green is my friend’s favorite color, and there was some green in the quilt, and it couldn’t hurt to up the green factor. So back to the fabric shop I went, and I was able to find a green that was from the same fabric line as the purple polka dot I had used in the quilt, so it was a perfect match. 

baby quilt on stairs

I know I’m biased since I made it, but I think it was the fantastic choice. 

We had my friend’s baby shower at our local yarn shop (of course!) last week, and I think she really liked the quilt. We had a really lovely time, and NOTHING beats a shower that is attended only by makers. I loved seeing what everyone had made. This baby will certainly be wrapped in love when she arrives.